Blockchain Startup Hires Ex-Citadel Executive
May 17 2016 - 9:53AM
Dow Jones News
By Telis Demos
A startup developing uses of the technology underlying bitcoin
for trading derivatives has hired a former senior banker and
Citadel executive as its chief operating officer.
Thomas Chippas, who was chief executive of Citadel Technology,
recently joined Axoni after leaving the Chicago investment firm in
January. Mr. Chippas, 45, also was previously a managing director
at Barclays PLC and Deutsche Bank AG working in trade execution and
financing.
He joined Axoni this week to help build up the young firm, which
this year separated from TradeBlock, itself a startup that provides
trading services for the bitcoin digital currency, according to
Axoni chief executive Greg Schvey.
Axoni has been working with big banks and trading firms to
settle over-the-counter trades using the blockchain, or the
underlying technology that was developed for settling bitcoin
trades using a shared global network.
Last month, Axoni unveiled a successful test of credit
derivatives trading involving J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., Credit
Suisse Group AG, the Depository Trust & Clearing Corp., and
Markit Ltd. In March, Axoni said it had worked with ICAP PLC to
test the use of blockchain for large foreign exchange trades.
Axoni, which currently has just nine employees, plans to add
many more in the near term, Mr. Schvey said. He wouldn't comment on
additional fundraising efforts.
A number of former bankers have joined blockchain-focused
companies in the past two years, including Blythe Masters, the
former global head of commodities at J.P. Morgan, who joined
Digital Asset Holdings LLC as chief executive last year.
The moves follow a broader shift in attention from bitcoin, the
controversial currency embroiled in disagreements about its
founding and usage, to the core technology that enables it.
A group of startup firms, also including itBit Trust Company
LLC, R3, Symbiont.io, will be vying for contracts at banks and
other financial services companies to implement blockchain-based
technologies.
However, they will also face pressure from bank regulators and
other intermediaries who will look to preserve their role in the
financial system and closely monitor the new technology.
Banks have been testing applications of blockchain as a way to
replace existing systems that require each party to a trade plus a
central clearinghouse to record the trade. Blockchain-based
networks can allows banks and regulators to share a single record
of a trade over a network.
Before Citadel, where he ran the unit that sells investment
management technology to clients, Mr. Chippas worked with trading
clients at Deutsche Bank and Barclays to execute and fund complex
computer-driven trades.
"We're at the same inflection point we were in the early 2000s"
with electronic trading protocols, said Mr. Chippas in an
interview. Blockchain technology "can redefine how firms interact
with each other."
Write to Telis Demos at telis.demos@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
May 17, 2016 09:38 ET (13:38 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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